Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program

Barrels at Galena

A yard full of oil barrels at Galena Air Force Base, Galena, Alaska, 1955. It is not known whether these barrels had just arrived or were waiting to be shipped out, so the barrels may have contained oil or hazardous waste materials, or might have been empty. Barrels like these were used at military installations throughout Alaska and still remain in some places as physical evidence of the miltary presence long after buildings have been removed.